Money woes could doom UA yearbook

Saturday

Aug 30, 2008 at 12:01 AM

The first staff of the Corolla offered their new publication to University of Alabama students in 1893, hoping it would find its way into 'hearts, as well as pocket books,' they wrote in the opening pages.

By Adam JonesStaff Writer

TUSCALOOSA | The first staff of the Corolla offered their new publication to University of Alabama students in 1893, hoping it would find its way into 'hearts, as well as pocket books,' they wrote in the opening pages.
Lately, students haven't offered either one. The Corolla, UA's yearbook for 115 years, stands on the brink of extinction. This year's book, the 2009 edition, is secure, but its future is cloudy, at best.
'It is in a precarious financial situation,' President Robert Witt told the UA Faculty Senate earlier this week. 'It's safe for this year, but if students are telling us they don't value it, we may have to look at other options.'
The situation can't be good when the university's president offers such straight talk on a campus tradition, and Paul Wright, director of student media, said he sadly agrees with Witt.
'I'm not planning much past this year at this point, but I'm going to keep it going as long as I possibly can,' Wright said. 'It captures part of the history of this institution, and that's got to be a good thing.'
It's possible some form of recording the academic year's history will live on, maybe by resorting to material from the student newspaper, The Crimson White, at the end of the spring. But the Corolla in its current form is likely doomed without an influx of money.
Wright oversees the finances of student publications at UA, all of which lose money except The Crimson White. But unlike the small literary journals, the Corolla loses a lot of money. Wright said it has lost about $30,000 to $50,000 annually the last few years, mostly because printing the large color, hardback book is expensive and becoming more costly.
Though the Office of Student Media gets about 30 percent of its roughly $1.1 million budget from tuition, the Corolla can't break even without shifting money from The Crimson White.
'It's not a good thing to take from one publication to pay another,' Wright said. 'It's not massive amounts of money, but at the end of the budget, we've got to pay bills somehow.'
Only 344 students of an enrollment close to 25,500 ordered the 2008 edition, just released. That's down slightly from the 389 who bought the 2007 book, but sales dropped 86 percent in the past 10 years.
Not alone
If the Corolla, at least in its traditional format, ends after this year, it will join a growing number of defunct college yearbooks, including those at the University of Tennessee, Mississippi State University and Purdue University.
'It's a trend, but I'm not sure why,' Wright said. 'I can't give you a good reason why students these days don't buy it, but they don't.'
Laura Pitts, editor of the 2008 and 2009 Corolla, has a few theories. For one, students tell her they don't see themselves in the yearbook, and the format seems archaic compared to their social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, where students share pictures and keep up with each other in real time.
Mostly, Pitts believes the price scares students away. The Corolla has cost $70 for the past three years, more than double the $37 it cost in 1998.
But trimming costs, said Pitts and Wright, means cutting pages. The 2008 edition has 240 pages, down significantly from the large books of the 1990s when students could thumb though more than 400 pages. And those books cost less.
'You get to a point that you are cutting back to save money, but your cutbacks hurt the sales of the book,' Wright said.
There is a way to save the Corolla, but the path to solvency means tacking on a fee to student tuition. Wright said he's sent proposals to UA leaders, but has heard nothing yet.
'We are considering a variety of funding options, including student fees, but no decisions have been made,' said Deborah Lane, assistant vice president for university relations.
Alternative model
Funneling more money to the yearbook, then handing it out for free is done at the University of Mississippi and Auburn University, where yearbooks thrive.
'We are doing well, but you can directly attribute it to being a student activity project and being funded directly through student fees,' said Dafni Greene, Auburn's program adviser for student media, including the yearbook, the Glomerata.
Auburn prints about 12,000 Glomeratas and gives away all but a handful, Greene said.
Aware of troubles on other campuses, Greene said Auburn's yearbook has been immune not only because it's free, but because it's distributed in the spring, not in the fall like the Corolla. The trade off is the Glomerata doesn't have the entire academic year, but seniors are also on campus to pick it up, she said.
Pitts, who edited her high school yearbook in the small town of Oakman, isn't happy Auburn gets the advantage of student fees while the Corolla struggles.
'They're our rival,' she said. 'Why can't we do that? Even if we don't do it, I wish that someone would just tell me why not. I haven't heard any explanation.'
Wright said an idea has been floated to allow students to simply add the cost of the yearbook to their tuition when signing up for the school year, eliminating the task of performing, in person, the physical act of payment. Pitts said students have expressed interest.
Leaders at Mississippi State tried it, but it didn't work, and the 2008 edition of the Reveille was the last.
'Unless you wrestle them down and put it into their hands, I don't know what you do,' said Eddie Keith, who oversaw the Reveille's finances as director of MSU's student union. 'It's something that's inconceivable to me because I still value my yearbooks, but I'm of an older generation.'
The Reveille sold about 450 books to the nearly 17,000- student body in 2008, the last straw for the languishing publication, he said. Its demise came after the price was lowered to $70 from a high of $90. The less expensive price didn't help, he said.
Keith said the decline in student interest is more than price. About 10 years ago, students at MSU automatically paid a $16 fee, but students weren't picking up enough copies to justify the printing. Campus leaders decided to go to subscription-based distribution.
'We thought maybe the book ought to be paid for by the people who want it,' ' Keith said. 'It scared me, but I couldn't argue with that decision. We were arrogant enough to think we wouldn't be affected.'
As the price went up, fewer bought the yearbook and it could no longer be printed at a bulk rate, jacking up the cost of a single edition, he said.
For now, Keith placed the burden on student leaders to resurrect the Reveille.
'We're trying to ask student leaders what they want,' he said. 'At this point, I've heard nothing. I see a vacuum there, but I'm not sure they do.'
Marketing efforts
The Corolla staff does see a vacuum.
'It's about making history,' Pitts said. 'I can honestly not wait till I'm a mom so that I can show my kids that I was a member of the yearbook.'
Knowing her audience, Pitts asks rhetorically what if football coach Nick Saban leads the Crimson Tide to a national championship. There'll be no yearbook to capture it, she said.
The Corolla as a keepsake is a selling point, but John Bowen said it's also about publicity and getting students involved. A business major, Bowen joined the staff to lead its marketing effort.
'We might be in a drudge now, but we can get out of it,' said the junior from Rogersville. 'Once we make some noise, then we can get some help.
'It's not about us saying, ‘poor, pitiful us,' ' he said. 'It's about what we can do to make this year's book the best it can be so people will want to keep it around.'
One idea is selling books on the promise that the buyer will be somewhere inside. In the 2008 edition, Pitts and her staff worked diligently to get more people on the pages, swelling the index of names to nearly 3,000, up from a couple of hundred in 2007.
'Those are 3,000 books that should have been sold,' Bowen said. 'People buy it when they find out they are in it.'
Bowen also wants to blanket the campus in advertisements and get alumni involved in raising money. If close to $7,000 could be found, the Corolla could afford once again to include Greek headshots, something it ditched in 2006. With that, Bowen would like to sell two-page or more spreads to Greek organizations.
That would inflate the page count and, perhaps, make a purchase more likely.
'We're going to sell more than 344 this year,' Bowen said confidently.
The Corolla's first staff dedicated it to the university 'in the belief that a new and brighter era will be opened for her by such a publication.'
Pitts hopes she isn't the one writing the Corolla's obituary 116 years later.
'Until we can find a way to get students excited about the yearbook, there's not going to be one,' she said. 'That's sad.'
Reach Adam Jones at adam.jones@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0230.

TUSCALOOSA | The first staff of the Corolla offered their new publication to University of Alabama students in 1893, hoping it would find its way into 'hearts, as well as pocket books,' they wrote in the opening pages.

Lately, students haven't offered either one. The Corolla, UA's yearbook for 115 years, stands on the brink of extinction. This year's book, the 2009 edition, is secure, but its future is cloudy, at best.'It is in a precarious financial situation,' President Robert Witt told the UA Faculty Senate earlier this week. 'It's safe for this year, but if students are telling us they don't value it, we may have to look at other options.'The situation can't be good when the university's president offers such straight talk on a campus tradition, and Paul Wright, director of student media, said he sadly agrees with Witt.'I'm not planning much past this year at this point, but I'm going to keep it going as long as I possibly can,' Wright said. 'It captures part of the history of this institution, and that's got to be a good thing.'

It's possible some form of recording the academic year's history will live on, maybe by resorting to material from the student newspaper, The Crimson White, at the end of the spring. But the Corolla in its current form is likely doomed without an influx of money.

Wright oversees the finances of student publications at UA, all of which lose money except The Crimson White. But unlike the small literary journals, the Corolla loses a lot of money. Wright said it has lost about $30,000 to $50,000 annually the last few years, mostly because printing the large color, hardback book is expensive and becoming more costly.

Though the Office of Student Media gets about 30 percent of its roughly $1.1 million budget from tuition, the Corolla can't break even without shifting money from The Crimson White.

'It's not a good thing to take from one publication to pay another,' Wright said. 'It's not massive amounts of money, but at the end of the budget, we've got to pay bills somehow.'Only 344 students of an enrollment close to 25,500 ordered the 2008 edition, just released. That's down slightly from the 389 who bought the 2007 book, but sales dropped 86 percent in the past 10 years.

Not alone

If the Corolla, at least in its traditional format, ends after this year, it will join a growing number of defunct college yearbooks, including those at the University of Tennessee, Mississippi State University and Purdue University.'It's a trend, but I'm not sure why,' Wright said. 'I can't give you a good reason why students these days don't buy it, but they don't.'Laura Pitts, editor of the 2008 and 2009 Corolla, has a few theories. For one, students tell her they don't see themselves in the yearbook, and the format seems archaic compared to their social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, where students share pictures and keep up with each other in real time.Mostly, Pitts believes the price scares students away. The Corolla has cost $70 for the past three years, more than double the $37 it cost in 1998.But trimming costs, said Pitts and Wright, means cutting pages. The 2008 edition has 240 pages, down significantly from the large books of the 1990s when students could thumb though more than 400 pages. And those books cost less.'You get to a point that you are cutting back to save money, but your cutbacks hurt the sales of the book,' Wright said.There is a way to save the Corolla, but the path to solvency means tacking on a fee to student tuition. Wright said he's sent proposals to UA leaders, but has heard nothing yet. 'We are considering a variety of funding options, including student fees, but no decisions have been made,' said Deborah Lane, assistant vice president for university relations.

Alternative model

Funneling more money to the yearbook, then handing it out for free is done at the University of Mississippi and Auburn University, where yearbooks thrive.

'We are doing well, but you can directly attribute it to being a student activity project and being funded directly through student fees,' said Dafni Greene, Auburn's program adviser for student media, including the yearbook, the Glomerata.Auburn prints about 12,000 Glomeratas and gives away all but a handful, Greene said.

Aware of troubles on other campuses, Greene said Auburn's yearbook has been immune not only because it's free, but because it's distributed in the spring, not in the fall like the Corolla. The trade off is the Glomerata doesn't have the entire academic year, but seniors are also on campus to pick it up, she said.

Pitts, who edited her high school yearbook in the small town of Oakman, isn't happy Auburn gets the advantage of student fees while the Corolla struggles.

'They're our rival,' she said. 'Why can't we do that? Even if we don't do it, I wish that someone would just tell me why not. I haven't heard any explanation.'

Wright said an idea has been floated to allow students to simply add the cost of the yearbook to their tuition when signing up for the school year, eliminating the task of performing, in person, the physical act of payment. Pitts said students have expressed interest.Leaders at Mississippi State tried it, but it didn't work, and the 2008 edition of the Reveille was the last.'Unless you wrestle them down and put it into their hands, I don't know what you do,' said Eddie Keith, who oversaw the Reveille's finances as director of MSU's student union. 'It's something that's inconceivable to me because I still value my yearbooks, but I'm of an older generation.'The Reveille sold about 450 books to the nearly 17,000- student body in 2008, the last straw for the languishing publication, he said. Its demise came after the price was lowered to $70 from a high of $90. The less expensive price didn't help, he said.Keith said the decline in student interest is more than price. About 10 years ago, students at MSU automatically paid a $16 fee, but students weren't picking up enough copies to justify the printing. Campus leaders decided to go to subscription-based distribution.'We thought maybe the book ought to be paid for by the people who want it,' ' Keith said. 'It scared me, but I couldn't argue with that decision. We were arrogant enough to think we wouldn't be affected.'As the price went up, fewer bought the yearbook and it could no longer be printed at a bulk rate, jacking up the cost of a single edition, he said.For now, Keith placed the burden on student leaders to resurrect the Reveille.'We're trying to ask student leaders what they want,' he said. 'At this point, I've heard nothing. I see a vacuum there, but I'm not sure they do.'

Marketing efforts

The Corolla staff does see a vacuum.'It's about making history,' Pitts said. 'I can honestly not wait till I'm a mom so that I can show my kids that I was a member of the yearbook.'

Knowing her audience, Pitts asks rhetorically what if football coach Nick Saban leads the Crimson Tide to a national championship. There'll be no yearbook to capture it, she said.

The Corolla as a keepsake is a selling point, but John Bowen said it's also about publicity and getting students involved. A business major, Bowen joined the staff to lead its marketing effort.

'We might be in a drudge now, but we can get out of it,' said the junior from Rogersville. 'Once we make some noise, then we can get some help.

'It's not about us saying, ‘poor, pitiful us,' ' he said. 'It's about what we can do to make this year's book the best it can be so people will want to keep it around.'One idea is selling books on the promise that the buyer will be somewhere inside. In the 2008 edition, Pitts and her staff worked diligently to get more people on the pages, swelling the index of names to nearly 3,000, up from a couple of hundred in 2007.

'Those are 3,000 books that should have been sold,' Bowen said. 'People buy it when they find out they are in it.'Bowen also wants to blanket the campus in advertisements and get alumni involved in raising money. If close to $7,000 could be found, the Corolla could afford once again to include Greek headshots, something it ditched in 2006. With that, Bowen would like to sell two-page or more spreads to Greek organizations.That would inflate the page count and, perhaps, make a purchase more likely.'We're going to sell more than 344 this year,' Bowen said confidently.The Corolla's first staff dedicated it to the university 'in the belief that a new and brighter era will be opened for her by such a publication.'Pitts hopes she isn't the one writing the Corolla's obituary 116 years later.'Until we can find a way to get students excited about the yearbook, there's not going to be one,' she said. 'That's sad.'

Reach Adam Jones at adam.jones@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0230.

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